Taking Back Sunday at Arizona Financial Theatre
Taking Back Sunday, who released their eighth studio album 152 in late 2023, often refer to themselves as the ‘luckiest guys you will meet.’ The new album, featuring 10 intensely vulnerable and absorbing new tracks was delivered with fresh ambition and a newfound purpose. It stands among the most genuinely reflective and emotionally pure efforts of Taking Back Sunday’s illustrious career. Starting out just hoping to release at least one album and go on tour, the band has since sold millions of albums, has multiple tracks with streams hitting the multiple hundred million mark, toured the world several times over, performed at all of the biggest festivals and are still always looking forward. Never ones to rest on their prior accomplishments or impressive back catalogue they are always striving to make something that they hope folks can find a little piece of themselves in. “Music is there to bring you together with like-minded people and get a little lost. For us, the songs from 152 have a life and energy all their own. It would make us the happiest if we can all get lost in it together.”
Steadfast and straightforward creative conviction has guided Thrice since they emerged in the late ’90s with a sound that combined hardcore grit and progressive ambition, establishing themselves as pioneers among their post-hardcore peers. From the underground punk scene to major labels and influential indie labels, with a rich catalog of intense, meaningful, and emotionally driven albums, Thrice is a singular entity that gains more significance with each new release among their fans. Dustin Kensrue (vocals/guitar), Teppei Teranishi (guitar), Eddie Breckenridge (bass), and Riley Breckenridge (drums) consistently evolve in sound and substance. From their earliest releases to the bold exploration over more than 20 years of material, Thrice built a reputation as a band for musicians and songwriters, and a group with consistent integrity willing to take artistic and commercial risks.
Palms (2018), their first album for Epitaph, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Indie and Hard Rock charts. And they’ve never lost their connection to their diverse audience, which is best understood beyond the Billboard charts and massive streams, through personal impact and a relationship forged through years. The double decade anniversaries of The Illusion of Safety (2002) and The Artist in the Ambulance (2003) inevitably fed the energy and creative self-assurance that resulted in Horizons/West. Horizons/West, their 2025 full-length studio album, arrives as a companion to 2021’s Horizons/East.
Saves The Day is a band from Princeton, New Jersey, and yet so much more, too. Because Saves The Day is also a byword for the entire emo sound, on which the band’s remarkable influence has few equals. Fronted today, just as they were when they first exploded as starry eyed teenagers, by the inimitable Chris Conley, the songs born of the frontman’s open-book emotional vulnerability have soundtracked a million lives the world over – albums such as 1999’s timeless Through Being Cool continuing to carve an indelible mark on the hearts and minds drawn to Saves The Day’s anthems of love, heartbreak and adventure.